Ethiopian Immigration and Nationality Affairs Main Department in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines Group launched e-visa services for African and international participants of Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions (MICE) held in Ethiopia. MICE travellers to Ethiopia will now be able to issue their visas online, book, pay and check-in their flight with Ethiopian Airlines online. Tewolde Gebre Mariam, Group CEO, Ethiopian Airlines, remarked, “With the immense potential for conference tourism, Ethiopia has still a lot to do to tap into the sector. The launching of an e-visa service for MICE is an impetus for the exponential demand of Ethiopia’s conference tourism, saving time and cost besides inducing a modern online visa application process. Gebreyohannes Teklu, Director, Main Department for Immigration & Nationality Affairs, said, “The introduction of e-visa for MICE will provide travellers with a fast and convenient way to apply for a visa and initiate their travel to Ethiopia while ensuring absolute security of sensitive information.”

ATPCO and SITA are joining forces to provide the airline industry with NDC Exchange, an industry-owned platform to support the adoption of IATA’s New Distribution Capability (NDC) for air fares and ancillary sales. NDC Exchange will enable quick adoption of NDC, lower the cost of compliance to the schema, while supporting complex interlining as airlines migrate to the new distribution format. “Participating in NDC Exchange as the launch pilot carrier provides an enormous amount of potential benefit to Air Canada” said Keith Wallis, Director of Global Product Distribution for Air Canada. “Beyond the obvious technical benefits of speed to market with an NDC-compliant API and the ability to support multiple standards and schemas, Air Canada is keenly interested in the community effect, whereby the benefit of a distribution network of like-minded partners grows exponentially with each new participant in NDC Exchange.” NDC Exchange will facilitate the real-time exchange of pricing, shopping and ancillary messages between airlines, travel agents and aggregators. It will normalize messages that use various versions of the NDC schemas. In addition, it will translate messages that are based on non-NDC schemas such as the Open Travel Alliance (OTA) XML schema. In doing this, ATPCO and SITA will support accelerated industry implementation of APIs and NDC while creating interoperability between the existing distribution model and NDC. This will reduce the overall cost to connect to, and support, multiple schema versions. Rolf Purzer, President & CEO, ATPCO, said: “ATPCO recognized the growing demand for simple, cost-effective API connectivity some time ago. In our partnership with SITA, we have developed this solution to enhance the complex distribution landscape, giving everyone a clear path to incorporate all methods of distribution.” Ilya …

The Korea Tourism Organisation (KTO) launched its first ever South Korea specialist programme in India with an aim to educate Indian travel trade partners about the travel assets of South Korea. The content is specifically designed as per the needs, requirements and expectations of the Indian travellers. The course is structured into four modules, each focusing on different aspect of tourism offerings of the destination. Upon completion, the participants will be duly acknowledged with Korea Specialist certificates. The course is created and hosted on TravelGyaan website. After completing the module, the participants can further take up the itinerary challenge and stand a chance of winning an I Phone 8. Approximately 450 travel agents have registered for the programme so far while 170 have finished their training programme. Jong Sool Kwon, Director, KTO, said, “Indian outbound market has tremendous potential and diverse requirements based on which we would like to educate the travel trade partners about South Korea’s tourism assets. We urge all the travel agents to come forward and make the most of the knowledge we intend to impart.”

Vistara and car rental company Avis India entered a partnership to provide a seamless car rental experience to Vistara customers. Customers booked on any Vistara flight can make their airport transfer, chauffeur-driven or self-driven car reservations at the time of booking a Vistara ticket, using the ‘Enhance My Booking’ option on the airline’s website. Members of Club Vistara (CV) will get to earn 10 CV points on every INR 100 spent on making bookings with Avis, using this option. Sanjiv Kapoor, Chief Strategy & Commercial Officer, Vistara said, “It is our constant endeavour to offer our customers a seamless and superior travel experience across all touchpoints, whether it is on ground or at 35,000 feet above it. In Avis India, we find a partner that shares our passion for delighting customers with a first-rate travel experience.” Sunil Gupta, Managing Director & CEO of Avis India said, “We are committed to providing a premium and a hassle-free car rental experience to consumers across the country. Our core values of providing a safe, reliable and comfortable transportation solutions resonate with what Vistara stands for in air travel.”

Post its successful convention in Ras Al Khaimah, Outbound Tour Operators Association of India (OTOAI) is gearing up for their national election on November 27, 2017. Making this annoucement, Guldeep Singh Sahni, President, OTOAI, said, “We are currently giving finishing touches to tasks and projects. We had previously undertaken to give the new committee a strong base in their transitory period to take our hard work even further during their tenure.” The elections will be conducted for 11 Executive Committee members who will further elect the new working committee.

Travel insurance provider TrawellTag Cover-More planned an accelerated growth strategy with the recent acquisition of Cover-More Group by Swiss-based Zurich Insurance Group. Dev Karvat, CEO, TrawellTag Cover-More said, “Zurich Insurance Group is one of the top three insurers in the world. With this development, we will benefit from their infrastructure and technology. Our Customer Care facility has now merged with Zurich’s World Travel Protection. We will not only manage claims now but also have a fully in-house support system to take care of customers anywhere in the world.” “The mother brand will continue as is and while the front-end will not change for its travel partners in India, the back-end will in terms of better facilities and infrastructure,” Karvat adds. He also revealed that TrawellTag Cover-More planned to tie up with another airline in the next few months. It currently works with GoAir to offer travel insurance to its passengers.

As per latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism, FTAs on e-Tourist Visa during September 2017 was a total of 1.18 lakh tourist as compared to 0.69 lakh during September 2016, registering a growth of 71 per cent. During January-September, 2017, a total of 10.67 lakh tourist arrived on e-Tourist Visa as compared to 6.75 lakh during January-September, 2016, registering a growth of 58 per cent. The percentage shares of top 15 ports in tourist arrivals on e-Tourist Visa during September 2017 were New Delhi Airport (53.4 per cent), Mumbai Airport (18.5 per cent), Chennai Airport (6.7 per cent),  Bengaluru Airport (6.3 per cent), Kochi Airport (4.2 per cent), Hyderabad Airport (2.8 per cent), Kolkata Airport (2.2 per cent), Amritsar Airport (1.1 per cent), Trivandrum Airport (1 per cent), Ahmadabad Airport (0.9 per cent), Tirchy Airport (0.8 per cent),  Dabolim (Goa) Airport (0.6 per cent), Calicut Airport (0.5 per cent),Jaipur Airport (0.4 per cent) and Pune Airport(0.2 per cent).

Foreign Tourist Arrivals (FTAs) this September were 7.23 lakh as compared to FTAs of 6.08 lakh in September 2016 and 5.43 lakh in September 2015, according to the latest data released by the Ministry of Tourism. The growth rate in FTAs in September 2017 over September 2016 is 18.8 per cent as compared to 12.1 per cent in September 2016 over September 2015. FTAs during the period January-September 2017 were 71.20 lakh with a growth of 15.5 per cent over the same period of previous year, as compared to the FTAs of 61.63 lakh with a growth of 9.8 per cent in January-September, 2016 over January-September, 2015. The percentage share of FTAs in India during September 2017 among the top 10 source countries was highest from Bangladesh (29.65 per cent) followed by USA (10.24 per cent), UK (7.04 per cent), Sri Lanka (3.98 per cent), Australia (3.50 per cent), Malaysia (3.32 per cent), Germany (2.57 per cent), Japan (2.50 per cent), China (2.46 per cent) and Canada (2.40 per cent).

AccorHotels and InterGlobe Hotels announced the opening of ibis Coimbatore City Centre, marking the debut of the smart hotel brand in the second largest city in Tamil Nadu. The business hotel is strategically located in the city’s central business district at Lakshmi Mills Junction, within close proximity to local tourist attractions and shopping hubs. With 129 well-appointed rooms, the hotel boasts of a contemporary design that offers unparalleled comfort and convenience. Speaking at the hotel’s launch, Shwetank Singh, Vice President – Development and Asset Management, InterGlobe Hotels Pvt Ltd, said, “The city is not only a business destination but also a vacation stop for those travelling to other parts of Tamil Nadu and Kerala. ibis Coimbatore is positioned at offering great value with international standards at a mid-market price-point.” Pierre-Etienne de Montgrand, Director of Operation ibis & ibis Styles India, AccorHotels, said, “The city is fast emerging as a growing business hub for textiles, industries, commerce, education, information technology, healthcare and manufacturing. The opening of this hotel caters to the growing needs of business as well as leisure travellers in the region.”

Marriott International has announced the opening of Fairfield by Marriott, Visakhapatnam. The 121-room Fairfield by Marriott Visakhapatnam offers a Business Centre and meeting rooms equipped with audio-visual facilities. All public areas and guest rooms have high-speed Wi-Fi. It is located in the heart of Visakhapatnam city and about 2km from the Visakhapatnam International Airport. It is the latest addition to the brand’s footprint in South Asia with four hotels in India currently open, including Fairfield by Marriott Bengaluru Rajajinagar, Fairfield by Marriott Bengaluru Outer Ring Road, Fairfield by Marriott Lucknow and Fairfield by Marriott Belagavi. Neeraj Govil Area Vice President, South Asia, Marriott International Inc, says, “Recognised as one of the ‘smart cities’ in India, Visakhapatnam holds tremendous potential for high economic growth, infrastructure development and further evolution of the services sector, we are excited to open our 5th Fairfield by Marriott in India. With our hospitality expertise, in conjunction with our owners K. Subba Raju, CMD, KSR Developers, we are confident in delivering a seamless hotel experience at great value.” “Adorning a contemporary style and pastel hues, Fairfield by Marriott Visakhapatnam is the newest addition to the port city of Andhra Pradesh. The property and staff aim to provide a comfortable and convenient stay to both business and leisure travellers,” said Sudhanshu Singh, General Manager, Fairfield by Marriott Visakhapatnam. “There is a lot of excitement and enthusiasm as we launch the Fairfield by Marriott brand in Visakhapatnam. As a Marriott International brand we strive to set the standards of delivering a great hotel experience through consistent and reliable service.”